Quiet No More

Rediscovering the Legacy of Overlooked Voices

• Carmen Cauthen

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What if the stories of our ancestors held the key to a richer understanding of our shared history?
 
Today's episode features a captivating discussion with me, Carmen Cauthen, a passionate historian committed to unearthing the forgotten narratives of Black history. I share my vibrant journey of illuminating the voices of those long overlooked, from my work on a book about Mount Hope Cemetery—a site brimming with unspoken tales since 1872—to an inspiring event honoring the unrecognized Black women of Raleigh, North Carolina. My dedication paints a vivid picture of how these histories, including those captured in WPA slave narratives, lay the foundation for many untold achievements.

We navigate the significance of preserving hidden family histories, with my personal mantra, "lions and tigers and bears," driving her mission to ensure all historical truths are acknowledged. Through my stories, I encourage listeners to actively record and question their own family histories, moving beyond the incomplete narratives often taught. 

We explore the untold contributions of Black individuals in the Revolutionary War and celebrate the legacy of Carter G. Woodson, the father of African American history. This episode promises to deepen your understanding of history and inspire you to become a steward of your own family's past.

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Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Speaker 1:

unseen, unheard. We've lived like that far too long. I'm carmen coffin and this is quiet. No more lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, oh my. What am I going to work on now? I finished a book, I have a contract for another one. I'm speaking. Do you know how many things suddenly are in my head to do? There are like six books and an event. Books and an event. And I thought, well, maybe, maybe I should go see a doctor and see if I have ADHD, because I spin all over the place. But I love all of it, I love it, I love it, I love it.

Speaker 1:

So I am working on a book about the Black Cemetery in our town, and it's a Black cemetery that was built by the city. It was coordinated or actually came into being because it was by statute of the legislature to being, because it was by statute of the legislature and a black legislator during Reconstruction asked for it to be built. He introduced the bill and so Mount Hope Cemetery was started in 1872, or the first people were buried there in 1872. And people are still buried there today. But the old section is just amazing. It's a pastoral hilly with trees and little streets going through it. But when you walk through and you read the headstones, it's like walking through the history of our city. It is such a legacy of who did what, who built. Big names, little names, people whose names are in the WPA slave narratives that were written in the 1930s and told their stories about living in slavery are buried there. People whose families were prominent in the community, black doctors and lawyers and politicians and business people, women who did amazing things. My own grandparents and great-grandparents are buried there, and so that is one of the books that I'm working on. But one of the other things that I'm working on is an event that I'm so excited about.

Speaker 1:

You know, my mother was a community activist, and I've recognized that she just did not yet recognize for the things that she did, and so when I told you earlier that I wanted to write a book about my mother and not a book about the Black neighborhoods of Raleigh, it's because I wanted to be sure that her legacy was written down somewhere, and as I began to think about that book, I realized that she was just one of any number of women whose legacies haven't been written down. Just in our community, most of the women that she was friends with or colleagues with. They didn't get any recognition for the things that they did, and I began to understand that black women, the work that they did, undergirded the work that the men did. In fact, there were times when the work that they did was more than the men did, but the men would get the credit. But the men would get the credit. And so I'm very excited to be planning an event with some folk for next year honoring my mother and the women who were women of substance around them, and I decided I was going to go back as far as I could and try to recognize just the women black women in Raleigh, north Carolina, and so this event is going to honor women from the 1800s forward who did amazing things for their time and who didn't get any recognition. Who didn't get any recognition. And so right now there are about 175 women on my list and I'm searching for more every day. But that's not all I'm doing. Next, I'm also researching blacks in the military during the Revolutionary War.

Speaker 1:

Growing up, we had a book at our house. It was a Brown book and it was called Negro Makers of History. I didn't realize until about three or four years ago that it was a first edition of a book that was written by Carter G Woodson, and Carter G Woodson was considered the father of African American history. Here's the reason why we celebrate Black History Month. He originally started it out with Black History Week and eventually it expanded to be a month because he knew that there was black history every day, 365 days a year, and he had a society that studied African-American history. And he wrote this book called Negro Makers of History, and it's been in our library ever since I was a little girl, but I didn't realize the value of it. I don't mean the financial value, although there is some of that, but I didn't realize that the history that was there wasn was the fact that Crispus Attucks was the first American to be killed during the Revolutionary War. He was Black and he lived in Boston or outside of Boston, and so I never heard about there being blacks from North Carolina in the Revolutionary War until I heard about John Chavis.

Speaker 1:

But lo and behold, as I dig, I find that there were blacks from all over the 13 colonies that were part of the Revolutionary War. In fact, there was a gentleman from Wake County who was enslaved, and his enslaver was in Wake County and left and took his possessions, including his slaves, and went to Georgia and then he paid this gentleman to go and serve in the war for him. That's how this black gentleman in Georgia got land, because one of the ways that what they call pensioners got money for serving or were paid for serving in the Revolutionary War, they were given land, they were given deeds to acres of land, and this gentleman, who was from Wake County, which is where Raleigh, north Carolina, is was enslaved and paid by his master or his enslaver to go and fight the war for him, because that white man did not want to go fight and so he received land for that, as well as being paid by his enslaver. And so we can go back through records and find out where people have served and how they were paid, how much land they received. And when you consider how people who were enslaved, or even people who weren't enslaved, free people of color, received land, that's an amazing thing.

Speaker 1:

All of these things that I'm learning, I don't want to just teach them to adults, I want young people to learn them as well. So the first book that I did about the city of Raleigh and its black neighborhoods, I created a workbook, coloring book for young people, probably fifth grade and up, and so it's got games and it's got information in it. That's not in the first book that I did and I've decided to continue doing that. So I'm working on a book and an event about my mom. The book about my mom is also going to include information about her sisters and her brother and recipes that they either passed on from their parents or recipes that they excelled at making, like my Aunt Arnett's German chocolate cake that I could literally eat every day because it was just wonderful. We used to fight over her German chocolate cake. We would cut a slice and hide it to make sure that we had a piece at a family dinner, and that recipe is going to go in this book and I'm excited about that. That's one of the things I used to talk to my doctor about was that one recipe book, and she loved my history book, but she was like you need to hurry up and write the cookbook because she wanted the recipes, and so she passed a couple of years ago, and so the book will not only be dedicated to the Grady girls, but it will be dedicated to her as well, and I also am working on other books about not just the Revolutionary War, but as part of the event that we're doing next year, doing a book about the women that we are going to be honoring.

Speaker 1:

You know, it is just important for us to write down the history that we know. We have learned history, but we haven't learned all of what there is to learn, and, of course, we'll never learn all that there is. But one of the things that I do know is that the history of America was written by people who could read and write, and people who were doing that reading and writing for economic benefit. They were doing it to keep up with their money, and that was white men. And so women, whether they're black or white, indigenous, native Americans, people who came from other countries and stayed here and became citizens we all need to be writing our history down.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't matter what your family members did. What's important is that they did it, and if they hadn't done it, that's a piece of our history that would have been missing, and so your piece is just as important as any president of the United States. Your family's piece is important. So those things that you think you know when you're going through things that are in the closet or the attic. Those things that your family kept. Those were precious things, the land that your family was able to purchase. Don't get rid of it. It's important that they were able to do that and it's important that you not only know the stories behind them, but that you tell the stories.

Speaker 1:

It's part of the history of our country that we need to be sure is told, and so I'm telling what I can. But you know, there are parts that are hidden in your house or that are hidden in the stories that your parents and grandparents know, that you haven't shared and you might not have paid attention when they were telling you, because you were a kid and it wasn't important to you then. But it's important now. You've got a phone. Pull it out. It's got a recording device on it. Start asking questions and say can I just take what you said? Because we've got to make sure that all the parts of our history are told and verified and that we no longer take for granted that what we're being taught is all of the truth. Those are the next things. Those are my lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, I have to keep telling it. I'm not going to be quiet anymore. You've been listening to Quiet no More where I share my journey. So you can be quiet, let's connect at wwwcarmencoffincom.